On a warm May night in San Francisco, the Ritz-Carlton ballroom shimmers with crystal and silver as a glittering, celebrity-studded crowd gathers for a charity dinner dance. The evening is perfect-until, just minutes before midnight, the room begins to sway. Glass shatters. And as the lights go out, people begin to scream.... In the earthquake's aftermath, the lives of four strangers will converge....Sarah Sloane, the beautiful wife of a financial whiz, watches her perfect world fall to pieces.... Grammy-winning singer Melanie Free, the event's headliner, comes to a turning point in her life and career.... Photographer Everett Carson, a former war correspondent whose personal demons have demoted him to covering society parties, finds new purpose amid the carnage...and Sister Maggie Kent, a nun who normally works in jeans and high-tops with the homeless, searches through the rubble-and knows instantly that there is much work to be done....

From the New York Times best-selling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin's In the Age of Love and Chocolate is the story of growing up and learning what love really is. All These Things I've Done , the first novel in the Birthright series, introduced us to timeless heroine Anya Balanchine, a plucky sixteen-year-old with the heart of a girl and the responsibilities of a grown woman. Now eighteen, life has been more bitter than sweet for Anya. She has lost her parents and her grandmother, and has spent the better part of her high school years in trouble with the law. Perhaps hardest of all, her decision to open a nightclub with her old nemesis Charles Delacroix has cost Anya her relationship with Win. Still, it is Anya's nature to soldier on. She puts the loss of Win behind her and focuses on her work. Against the odds, the nightclub becomes an enormous success, and Anya feels like she is on her way and that nothing will ever go wrong for her again. But after a terrible misjudgment leaves Anya fighting for her life, she is forced to reckon with her choices and to let people help her for the first time in her life.

From the New York Times best-selling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, this is the second stunning novel in Gabrielle Zevin's Birthright series. In this thrilling novel about a reluctant mobster, Anya tries to shatter the ties that bind--with deadly consequences. "Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in."- Michael Corleone, The Godfather Since her release from Liberty Children's Facility, Anya Balanchine is determined to follow the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, her criminal record is making it hard for her to do that. No high school wants her with a gun possession charge on her rap sheet. Plus, all the people in her life have moved on: Natty has skipped two grades at Holy Trinity, Scarlet and Gable seem closer than ever, and even Win is in a new relationship. But when old friends return demanding that certain debts be paid, Anya is thrown right back into the criminal world that she had been determined to escape. It's a journey that will take her across the ocean and straight into the heart of the birthplace of chocolate where her resolve--and her heart--will be tested as never before.

"Known for her outstanding performances on The Good Wife and ER, Julianna Margulies now unleashes her sharp talent with a powerful debut memoir chronicling her life and her work, examining from within, her journey from chaos to calm. "When an actor is on a long running television show, especially when the writing is superb as was the case with The Good Wife, the character becomes a second skin; they grow as you grow, they change as you change. Being an actress gives me the luxury of discovering myself. All the feelings that came up from playing Alicia allowed me to look back at my life and tap into my own vulnerability. My personal fear of the unknown reared its ugly head as I studied this character, most likely stemming from the ever-present unpredictability of my childhood." - From the Introduction An apple-cheeked bubbly child, Julianna Margulies was bestowed the nickname "Sunshine Girl" by her mother at an early age. Raised between two divorced parents, often on different continents, Julianna quickly learned how to be of value to her eccentric mother and her absent father. Raised in fairly unconventional ways in various homes in Paris, England, New York, and New Hampshire, Julianna's role among the turmoil and uncertainty that her parents generated, was to comfort those around her, find organization among the disorder, and eventually make her way in the world as a young adult and eventually an Award-winning actress. Along the way, there were failed romances, difficult choices, and overwhelming rejections. But there was also the moment that fate, faith, and talent assembled in a perfect storm that lead to the roles of a lifetime, both professionally and personally. Sunshine Girl is an accomplished coming of age story that offers readers a rich sense of relatability as well as the intimate details of a life unimagined"--

"World War II brings together six remarkable young flight nurses, who face the challenges of war and its many heartbreaks and victories as unsung heroes"--

In the fifth and final book in the All-of-A-Kind Family series, Ella, the eldest child of the family, has been offered a stage career by a Broadway talent scout. While Ella wants to sing more than anything else in the world, she finds herself torn between Jules, her beloved fiancé who has just returned from World War I, and what's sure to be a tough uphill climb to stardom. Once again, the loving all-of-a-kind-family provides the support needed for Ella to make the right decision. Born in 1904 on New York's Lower East Side, Sydney Taylor was one of the first authors of children's books centered on Jewish characters, and is especially known for the immensely popular All-of-a-Kind Family series. The Sydney Taylor Book Award is given each year by the Jewish Association of Libraries to a book for young people that authentically portrays the Jewish experience.

A bitingly funny, provocative, and revealing look at our foibles, passions, and pastimes—from one of the most creative minds of our time. “Nora Ephron can write about anything better than anybody else can write about anything.”— The New York Times From her Academy Award–nominated screenplays to her bestselling fiction and essays, Nora Ephron is one of America’s most gifted, prolific, and versatile writers. In this classic collection of magazine articles, Ephron does what she does best: embrace American culture with love, cynicism, and unmatched wit. From tracking down the beginnings of the self-help movement to dressing down the fashion world’s most powerful publication to capturing a glimpse of a legendary movie in the making, these timeless pieces tap into our enduring obsessions with celebrity, food, romance, clothes, entertainment, and sex. Whether casting her ingenious eye on renowned director Mike Nichols, Cosmopolitan magazine founder Helen Gurley Brown—or herself, as she chronicles her own beauty makeover—Ephron deftly weaves her journalistic skill with the intimate style of an essayist and the incomparable talent of a great storyteller.

Anarchist, journalist, drama critic, advocate of birth control and free love, Emma Goldman was the most famous—and notorious—woman in the early twentieth century. This abridged version of her two-volume autobiography takes her from her birthplace in czarist Russia to the socialist enclaves of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Against a dramatic backdrop of political argument, show trials, imprisonment, and tempestuous romances, Goldman chronicles the epoch that she helped shape: the reform movements of the Progressive Era, the early years of and later disillusionment with Lenin’s Bolshevik experiment, and more. Sounding a call still heard today, Living My Life is a riveting account of political ferment and ideological turbulence. First time in Penguin Classics Condensed to half the length of Goldman's original work, this edition is accessible to those interested in the activist and her extraordinary era

"While you were sleeping ... With her brother Thomas injured on the battlefront in the Colonies, orphaned Cecilia Harcourt has two unbearable choices: move in with a maiden aunt or marry a scheming cousin. Instead, she chooses option three and travels across the Atlantic, determined to nurse her brother back to health. But after a week of searching, she finds not her brother but his best friend, the handsome officer Edward Rokesby. He's unconscious and in desperate need of her care, and Cecilia vows that she will save this soldier's life, even if staying by his side means telling one little lie ... I told everyone I was your wife When Edward comes to, he's more than a little confused. The blow to his head knocked out three months of his memory, but surely he would recall getting married. He knows who Cecilia Harcourt is--even if he does not recall her face--and with everyone calling her his wife, he decides it must be true, even though he'd always assumed he'd marry his neighbor back in England. If only it were true ... Cecilia risks her entire future by giving herself--completely--to the man she loves. But when the truth comes out, Edward may have a few surprises of his own for the new Mrs. Rokesby."--Provided by publisher.

"Oy! to the world. Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg. Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze" -- back cover.

"Show Boat" stands as one of the most significant and influential works in the history of American musical theater. Born from the collaboration between legendary composer Jerome Kern, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, and novelist Edna Ferber, this masterpiece revolutionized the stage by integrating a serious, complex narrative with a sophisticated musical score. Set against the sweeping backdrop of the Mississippi River from the 1880s through the 1920s, the story follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dockworkers aboard the 'Cotton Blossom' floating palace. This powerful drama explores enduring themes of racial prejudice, tragic romance, and the evolving landscape of American society. Through iconic compositions such as "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," and "Make Believe," "Show Boat" captures the soul of a nation in transition. The work broke new ground by addressing social injustice and systemic inequality with a depth previously unseen in musical comedy, forever changing the trajectory of the Broadway stage. As a cornerstone of the American canon, "Show Boat" remains a poignant and musically rich exploration of love and hardship along the Great River. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

If rock 'n' roll is an altered state of intoxicated consciousness between creation and destruction, violence and romance, beauty and ugliness, 'N' Roses, one of the most successful bands on the popular music scene. Author Danny Sugarman is no stranger to this scene, and his biography of Jim Morrison, No One Here Gets Out, reveals his immense experience with the L.A. music scene. 16 pages of photographs; 35 illustrations.

The hilarious and controversial host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest, most opinionated, and most necessary book ever—a brilliantly astute and acerbically funny vivisection of American life, politics, and culture. Some of the smartest commentary about what’s happening in America is coming from a comedian—this comedian being Bill Maher. If you want to understand what’s wrong with this country, it turns out that one of the best informed and most thought-provoking analysts is this very funny pothead. The book was inspired by the “editorial” Bill delivers at the end of each episode of Real Time. These editorials are direct-to-camera sermons about culture, politics, and what’s happening in the world. To put this book together, Maher reviewed more than a decade of his editorials, rewriting, reimagining, and updating them, and adding new material to speak exactly to the moment we’re in. Free speech, cops, drugs, race, religion, the generations, cancel culture, the parties, the media, show biz, romance, health—Maher covers it all. The result is a hugely entertaining work of commentary about American culture in the tradition of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and H. L. Mencken.

"This will bring us back together again. Just the way we used to be." - Walter Burns, His Girl Friday Celebrated for its humor, spontaneity, unpredictability, and quick tempo "overlapping" dialogue, His Girl Friday is a noteworthy 1940 American screwball (a subgenre of romantic) comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Hollywood legends, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, with Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. Wanting to win back his ex-wife "Hildy" Johnson (Russell), who is also his star reporter, newspaper editor Walter Burns (Grant) tries to convince her to cover one more story together, and he gets them enmeshed in a prominent murder case. The script for His Girl Friday was written by Charles Lederer and famous writer and director Ben Hecht (uncredited), and is based on Hecht's prominent 1928 play, The Front Page, that he co-wrote with Charles MacArthur.The film, ranked in the past in the top 100 films by The American Film Institute, features numerous special techniques, including the use of rapid, often witty, overlapping lines to make conversations in the screenplay sound more real-life. In this beautifully designed book edition of the original film screenplay, the original dialogue from the film is reproduced complete with an accompanying commentary that enables the reader to understand the splendor of this Hollywood classic. Considered an overall favorite of leading Hollywood critics, and the legendary director Quentin Tarantino, His Girl Friday is also held in popular esteem - enjoying a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 99% based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 9 out of 10.

In 1958 director Billy Wilder offered Tony Curtis the chance to star in the film called SOME LIKE IT HOT, which became one of the best-loved films of all time. Now, fifty years later, one of its leading 'ladies' reveals what REALLY went on during the making of 'the funniest movie of all time' (the American Film Institute). Writing in his inimitable voice, Tony Curtis speaks frankly about his working relationship with Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder, as well as his romance with Marilyn Monroe. Here too is the truth behind Monroe's erratic behaviour, which almost scuppered the production. Featuring rarely seen photographs from his private collection and a wealth of first-hand anecdotes, this is an insider's account of the making of a Hollywood classic.

In the 1990s Americans are divided on virtually every issue surrounding sexuality. Emotion and political passion have come to dominate sexual matters, and the debates on teenage pregnancy, pornography, homosexuality, abortion, and AIDS reveal deep social conflicts. The sexual sphere is so entangled that it defies analysis or even description. In Embattled Eros Steven Seidman seeks to clarify some of the major dynamics and patterns of contemporary American intimate culture. He shows that at the root of the major conflicts are two sexual ideologies, the libertarian and the romanticist. Examining the strengths and limits of each ideology, he suggests broad outlines for a sexual ethic that goes beyond the current polarization. In part one Seidman argues that we should reject our usual way of looking at recent history--a sexual revolution in the '60s followed by a conservative backlash in the '80s, an ongoing struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of repression. Between the '60s and the '80s he argues, there transpired neither a sexual revolution nor counter-revolution but a heightened conflict over the meaning of sex, its relation to pleasure, romance, and self-identity, its proper moral role in private and public life. In part two Seidman's primary purpose is to analyze moral arguments over sexual norms and practices. He chooses the sex debates that occurred within feminism and the gay male community in the late '70s through the '80s as his sites for moral engagement, as it is here that the debate over sexual ethics has been given its fullest elaboration. In conclusion, Seidman offers a pragmatic ethic that revolves around the concept of sexual and social responsibility as a bridge between libertarians and romanticists. The main issue is how to preserve the expansive notion of sexual choice, diversity, and pleasure contained in the libertarian ethic yet also retain standards that allow us to offer social and personal criticisms of intimate life. Building on the work presented in Romantic Longings, the author's history of intimacy in the United States, Embattled Eros presents a sophisticated yet accessible analysis of contemporary sexual life and its moral conflicts. Emphasizing feminist and lesbian and gay issues, the book is for all readers interested in contemporary sexuality.

The Newbery Honor-winning book from the author of Summer of My German Soldier Philip Hall is the cutest, smartest boy in the sixth grade, and Beth Lambert loves him. The fact that he beats her in classwork, sports, and almost everything else doesn't bother Beth at first. Then she realizes that Philip might be best because she's letting him beat her. Beth knows that she deserves to be Number One--and she's going to prove it! This funny, universal story of a girl learning that she matters in the world has delighted readers for over twenty years. A New York Times Outstanding Book An ALA Notable Book Kirkus Choice Award

Goldberg contends that the mainstream media crossed an important line in the 2008 presidential race, moving from a liberal bias to crass partisanship as spin doctors for Barack Obama.

At the height of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tony Curtis starred in Houdini and Spartacus, made comedy history with Jack Lemmon in the unforgettable Some Like It Hot, was friends with Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and James Dean, and romanced screen sirens such as Marilyn Monroe, Janet Leigh and Natalie Wood. He lived a life he could only dream of growing up in the Bronx. Born Bernard Schwarz to immigrant parents, this is Tony Curtis' story of his hard-knock childhood, his wild days as a Hollywood playboy, his destructive drug addiction and his life now as an artist in his eighties. Sparing no name, no detail and no ego, Tony Curtis talks intimately about the people he has known during his long, illustrious career, his co-stars, the studio owners, his wives, his lovers and his friends. This book will be the true record of his life, told with humour, grace and honesty.

A wealth of breathtaking photographs shot from unusual camera angles and imaginative viewpoints provide new perspectives on the beauty and magic of the City by the Bay--under moonlight, shrouded in fog or simply shining under the California sun. San Francisco Chronicle photojournalist Frederic Larson and the late Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Herb Caen shared a love of San Francisco's beauty and majesty that they captured in photographs and words over the course of decades. Now they are united: Larson's spectacular photographs--shot from unique perspectives in the light of the moon and the rising sun, shrouded in fog--and Caen's beautiful tributes excerpted from hundreds of columns. The city's glorious landmarks are seen through the camera lens, places like the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park, Chinatown and Alcatraz, the frenzied bustle of Fisherman's Wharf, the timeless romance of cable cars. The Larson-Caen collaboration exposes the city for what it is--vibrant, innovative, and endlessly surprising.